“You’re a suhoshin?” Ethan cuts him off. My eyes jump back and forth between them.
Frankly, I’m surprised the suhoshin is allowing Ethan to talk to him like this. This authoritative side to Ethan is admittedly hot, but the guardian is bound to snap any minute. The Suhoshin are an arrogant lot. I inch closer to Ethan. I don’t know what I’ll do if this Jihun guy decides to immobilize me, but I’ll think of something. The handsome bastard is not getting Ethan.
Wait. I’m angry ... no ...furiouswith Ethan. Why do I want to help him? Because, damn it all to fucking hell, he’s still my friend.
“Yes, I am a captain in the Order of the Suhoshin.” He cocks his head to the side with the faintest frown. “Your hi—”
“Don’t.” Ethan holds up a hand and glances at me with pleading in his eyes. Pleading for what? I tilt my head to hold his gaze, but he turns away from me. His voice is firm when he says, “Not yet, Captain. I need to—”
“Look what we have here.” The cold, slithering voice echoes in the cave.
“Give me a fucking break,” I grit out. The yellow assassin is somewhere above us, but I can’t see him. “You all have to stop sneaking up on me.”
“I’m actually a little hurt that no one invited me to this playdate,” he simpers. Now he’s somewhere low to the ground.
“Oh, wow. A rotting corpse with a sense of humor.” I draw my sword and casually sling my backpack over a shoulder with my free hand. I can’t let on that I have the sacred ashes in there. “How refreshing.”
Ethan steps close to me and whispers, “Protect the ashes.”
The suhoshin runs straight for us at breakneck speed. I raise my hwando to block his attack, but he leaps into the air a few feet from us, swinging his long sword in elegant, lethal strikes. The yellow assassin flickers into view and thuds to the ground on all fours, his unitard sliced open at his chest and thigh.
Ethan pushes me behind him and stretches his arms wide. The golden axe and the silver axe appear in each of his fists. I stumble back a step. He can summon the axes at will? Why am I even surp—
Before I can finish the thought, he lunges for the assassin.
The golem shifts like a shadow—a bright, school bus–yellow shadow—flickering in and out of view as he evades Ethan’s axes and Jihun’s sword. Ethan has a shitload of explaining to do, but we have to survive this first. I switch my sword hand to slip on both straps of the backpack and tighten it against my body.
I can’t let the boys have all the fun, so I sprint toward the wall of the cave, kick off into the air, and bring my hwando down on the swirling mist of yellow, which I assume is the assassin. Ethan and Jihun stay their weapons just in time not to slice me up. I strike home with my blow and follow through with a roundhouse kick as I land. The assassin shrieks in pain and stumbles back to earth in his corporeal form, gripping his shoulder.
“Where is your master?” I point my sword at Yellow as Ethan and the suhoshin flank me.
His black lips stretch all the way to the edges of his jaw in an abomination of a smile. “I don’t think I want to play anymore.”
The assassin bursts open like a balloon filled beyond its capacity, his body shattering into fine powder that envelops the cave in a noxious yellow fog. The plants shrivel and fall to the ground like flakes of black snow. And the trees outside decompose from the tips of their branches down to their roots. I stare in horror, reminded of Samshin Halmeom’s arm burning to ashes. He can’t do this. He’s killing this mountain. He’s killing ... us.
A racking cough tears through my body, blood spewing from my mouth. My legs give out, and I fall to my knees. Ethan kneels beside me and pulls me toward him, his arm wrapped around my shoulders. Jihun plants his long sword on the ground and sways on his feet.
“Captain, bind the assassin,” Ethan snaps. “Now!”
The suhoshin draws himself up, even as blood drips down his chin, and holds his palm out. The fog of poison converges toward the center of the cave, growing denser and thicker until a blob of yellow—like the sinuous wax in a lava lamp—flows and shifts in the air. Jihun’s hand is gripped into a shaky fist, and he grits his teeth to hold on.
Ethan walks toward the yellow blob with long, determined steps.
“No.” My voice is a ragged whisper, my throat raw from the poison. “Don’t ...”
He raises the axes—he doesn’t seem to feel their weight—and brings them down on either side of the shifting mass, stopping just shy of burying the blades in it. In a cold, imperious voice, Ethan commands, “Show yourself.”
The undead assassin materializes in his corporeal form, holding himself stiffly away from the axes on either side of his neck. His sneer is strained as he says, “The gumiho I know. And anyone can see the angel boy is a self-righteous suhoshin. But who are you, I wonder?”
“So poison is your little power.” Ethan presses the blades of his axes against the golem’s neck. “Did you enjoy killing my brother?”
Oh, gods.It makes perfect, sickening sense. I draw in breath after breath of clean air. The yellow assassin killed Ben with his poison. Rage burns through the fog in my head. I drag the back of my hand across my mouth, wiping off the blood. I’m going to end the fucker as soon as I can stand.
“Ah, you’re our messenger boy.” Yellow preens. “We were hoping you’d run to the beast. But however did you find her? Have you secretly been in touch with her? Behind your brother’s back.” He shrieks with unhinged laughter. “Two brothers with a hard-on for ananimal. It would be sweet if it wasn’t so revolting.”
“Of course you enjoyed killing him,” Ethan continues, as though the assassin hasn’t spoken. “But not as much as I’ll enjoy watching you die. First thing first, where is your master?”
“Oh, don’t worry your pretty little head over it.” The undead’s eerie smile spreads. “He’ll come soon enough for the beast.”
